Several years ago, I found that a lump in my breast was growing...

Janis Anne DeMuth

Several years ago, I found that a lump in my breast was growing, noticeably. Fearing malignancy, I asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. She agreed to treat me and asked me to set aside a time every day to pray and study. As I did this, I realized that a strong sense of self—self-centeredness, self-justification, self-will, and so forth—needed to be replaced with a spiritual perception of my individuality as the image and likeness of God.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy states: "Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death" (p. 242). With this statement as a basis for my prayer, I began to be less willful and more loving.

Lump in breast healed; character reformed.

I found in a dictionary that one meaning of malignant is "disposed to rebel against God." As I examined my thinking to see if I felt any enmity or rebellion toward God, I found resentment, oversensitivity, and self-centeredness. I began to replace those rebellious attitudes with appreciation, responsiveness to Spirit, God, and unselfishness.

When these words from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 278) came to my thought one day, I knew that healing was inevitable:

Healed is thy hardness, His love hath dissolved it,
Full is the promise, the blessing how kind;
So shall His tenderness teach thee compassion,
So all the merciful, mercy shall find.

I don't know when the lump disappeared, but it soon did and has never returned. What was more important was the reformation of character that took place. Part of that reformation was being willing to forgive my aunt, who I felt had never loved me as much as her other niece and her nephew. One day as I wrote a letter to her, I was filled with forgiveness and love for her. Another lump that had been in the corner of my eye for as long as I could remember suddenly dissolved and disappeared.

This promise in the Bible has been proved true to me: "If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear" (Job 11:14, 15).

My gratitude goes out to the dear practitioner who helped me see the errors in my thoughts and actions that needed to be corrected in order for me to express my true, spiritual selfhood. I thank God for the many healings I have had through the study and application of Christian Science.

Janis Anne DeMuth
Portland, Oregon

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